The really "Old School" boating thread

[Sharp shooter]

[Sharp shooter]

This cracks me up. Back seat driver. lol

[Sharp shooter]

George Nordlings Boat Bar.

[WESTERNAERO]

George Nordlings Boat Bar.

That is bitchin!!

[Mitch]

Nice thread Jerry.

[Sharp shooter]

Nice thread Jerry.

Thanks Mitch. I appreciate the contribution. I never noticed Rotary outboards before. Either there weren't many made or I wasn't paying attention.

[nowski]

Great Thread By The Way!!! Back in the day most people skied with a ski belt, would those things be legal today?

[Sharp shooter]

Great Thread By The Way!!! Back in the day most people skied with a ski belt, would those things be legal today?

That's what we used along with 75 foot double handle ropes.

[Havasuing]

A couple of quick additions: The tunnel boat (#191) in the OMC ad was Jimbo McConnell's. He drove it in the 1974 Parker 7-Hour (first year it was 7 hours, not 9) and the rotary power was awesome for about the first hour (he almost lapped the entire field on a 13-mile course) until it broke. I never got a really straight answer from OMC's Charile Strang in the months and years that followed about why the rotary project disappeared so quickly after all the R&D that OMC sunk into it. The Horizon "Jette" was a great boat (although not very pretty) as far as I was concerned. I drove/tested several for Powerboat and found them to be the best turning vee-bottom in the jet category. The Mel Zikes column from Powerboat brings back memories -- when I started there as magazine editor I had four monthly columnists to wrangle and each was a handful in their own way: Bill Muncey, John Crouse, Mel Zikes and Dick DeBartolo -- for my money the most entertaining team of unpredictable boating pundits the industry has ever had. And Don Aronow has to be one of boating's most memorable personalities -- met him for the first time in April 1967 on the guest dock at the Long Beach Yacht Club. He and Knocky (his cockpit co-pilot) had come out to run the Long Beach to Ensenada POPBRA offshore race with a 32' Cary (Cigarette hadn't been born yet). Don made a gentlmen's bet with Long Beach mayor, Edwin Wade, that he would get to Ensenada in his race boat before Wade could drive there by car. Don won the race and the bet by a mile.

[Sharp shooter]

A couple of quick additions: The tunnel boat (#191) in the OMC ad was Jimbo McConnell's. He drove it in the 1974 Parker 7-Hour (first year it was 7 hours, not 9) and the rotary power was awesome for about the first hour (he almost lapped the entire field on a 13-mile course) until it broke. I never got a really straight answer from OMC's Charile Strang in the months and years that followed about why the rotary project disappeared so quickly after all the R&D that OMC sunk into it. The Horizon "Jette" was a great boat (although not very pretty) as far as I was concerned. I drove/tested several for Powerboat and found them to be the best turning vee-bottom in the jet category. The Mel Zikes column from Powerboat brings back memories -- when I started there as magazine editor I had four monthly columnists to wrangle and each was a handful in their own way: Bill Muncey, John Crouse, Mel Zikes and Dick DeBartolo -- for my money the most entertaining team of unpredictable boating pundits the industry has ever had. And Don Aronow has to be one of boating's most memorable personalities -- met him for the first time in April 1967 on the guest dock at the Long Beach Yacht Club. He and Knocky (his cockpit co-pilot) had come out to run the Long Beach to Ensenada POPBRA offshore race with a 32' Cary (Cigarette hadn't been born yet). Don made a gentlmen's bet with Long Beach mayor, Edwin Wade, that he would get to Ensenada in his race boat before Wade could drive there by car. Don won the race and the bet by a mile.

Bob Brown...?

Great info! Here's another shot of the Horizon out of the Aug '71 Powerboat. The picture headed a Bill Holmes interview.